Smart phones might one day diagnose HIV

Scientists have invented a new sensor that can detect diseases. Developers promise that the sensor will one day be integrated into a smartphone.

Russian scientists Dmitry Fedyanin and Yury
Stebunov have created a new sensor that can detect cancer cells and diagnose
diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, and herpes in the comfort of your own home.

"We are using a nano-mechanical
circuit with a very high sensitivity," Fedyanin told RBTH.

Previously, such technologies worked only
under low temperature and in a vacuum. Fedyanin and Stebunov's invention,
however, is unique because it's designed to operate at room temperature and
normal pressure.

Andrew Garazha, a researcher at Insilico
Medicine at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S., is certain that in a few
years it will be possible to put a sensor in a smartphone and monitor changes
in one's body.

"The clinical tests have yet to be
done,'' Garazha said. "I doubt the sensor will be widely used by doctors, but
it can start a revolution at the premedical stage when a patient doesn't yet
know that he/she is ill, and will then need to get tests done."